Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Crazy names & Mislabeled Succulents (HELP)

When I was a kid my Mom always got my sister's and my name mixed up! Did that ever happen to you? I am Candy and my sister's name is Cindy. So you can see right off the bat where that would be a problem. So she would get all mad and this is how she would call for me, " Cindy, I mean Candy (getting madder and louder), or should I say Beulah and Queenie! You know who you are, get over here!" If she got that far we ran fast to get there. I was grateful I was Beulah and my sister was Queenie. Not sure why but it didn't sound as haughty. My sister is 8 1/2 years older than me so I thought she was surely the Queen. Hee hee! And my Mom....she was really a hoot!

Now how does this apply to succulents? It drives me crazy when I get home with a lovely batch of beautiful succulents and find that some have been mislabeled and now I have one that has the correct name and another that I have to search for. The guy (sorry don't know name) at Spiky obcession blogged about the same situation. Great blog by the way! We have to drag out our books, search the internet or ask our lovely succulent friends for help. So here I am asking for Help.

So I know the plant on the left is Pig's Ear but the plant on the right I don't have a name. Any ideas?

Here is a better view of the Pig's ear. Isn't it magnificent. I love the red edges!

Here is the unnamed culprit. Very interesting succulent. Long fleshy leaves that come to a point. And each point has a reddish tip.Since I wrote this post my buddy Gerhard at Bamboo and More came up with the name of this plant. It is called Cotyledon orbiculata var oblonga flanagani. Yeah for Gerhard. You should check out his wonderful Garden blog. He is really getting into succulents lately and besides that has a wonderful garden and great advice.

Here is another succulent that looks to be mislabeled. It says it is Lemaireocereus pruinosus. But when I look that up on google it shows it to look a bit different and be gray. This cannot be correct. And cactus I find are the hardest for me to identify! So again I am asking for Help!

Now that we went down the unnamed/mislabeled mystery label lets see some succulents with outrageously long or weird names!

This little beauty with the large leaves is call Rechsteineria leucotricha. How's that for a mouth full. It is a native plant from Brazil. Underneath the leaves is a bulb. It holds the water for this succulent plant. When it blooms the flowers are light red and tube shaped.

So as I was looking through my strange named plants I found this goofy looking succulent. And wouldn't you know it was mislabeled! I can't believe I found another one. This kind of stuff drives me crazy. Maybe I should call it Beulah! Hahahaha!

Another wonderful friend this time from Flickr found out the name on the above succulent. It is called Avonia quinaria subsp. alstonii. It is from South Africa. I still think I am going to call it Beulah though!

Now this succulent has a weird name and a bunch of other names. It's real name is Astrophytum asterias. Say that three times really fast. It is also called a Star Cactus, Sand dollar cactus and Star Peyote. It is originally from Texas and is very endangered. No one is allowed to dig these up from the native soil. Please make sure that if you purchase one of these that it was started by seed. This will discourage poaching.

Ok let me know if your Mom called you a goofy name. I bet everyone has a crazy name their Mom called them when she was mad! LOL

20 comments:

Hola!This mislabeling drives me nuts with succulents and the various cacti....especially of the opuntia variety!! I don't understand why many of the other plants don't have this issue but the succulents do? Very strange and frustrating when you're trying to keep records!

I KNOW! Holy cow it makes me insane. I am trying to keep a photo database on my computer and this keeps happening. Maybe the reason it happens so much with succulents is that most gardeners don't deal with them a lot. For example if you go into a nursery. There is usually not a large selection of succulents as compared to other flowering plants, bushes and trees.

I think you are right on the money kiddo! I found a few pics and the site or blog I will attach was the best. It called it Cotyledon orbiculata var oblonga flanagani. http://kellysnotsogreenthumb.blogspot.com/2008/04/finger-aloe-cotyledon-orbiculata-var.htmlWow you are the best! I guess the labeler got the Cotyledon orbiculata right but not the variety. And it's not called Pig's ear! But it is native to Africa. Hahaha! Thanks my friend!

Me too Gerhard! Lol The crown and base are bulbous. It is where the water for this succulent plant. There is a whole family of these bulbous strange succulents. But I only have two of them that I got this summer.

Man the Cotyledon orbiculatas are tough. It might be var. oblonga (then there are more cultivars). The only major difference between var. flanaganii & oblong seems to be leaf arrangement. We have two types with long skinny leaves & I have no idea what either one is for sure. Love your Avonia quinaria subsp. alstonii! Very reptilian.

I always enjoy your post on succulents, think I have told you my mom was really into them, wish I had gotten into them when she was around so I could of learned interesting things about them. Now my son is into them. Can't remember mom calling me by any other name when she was kind of upset, probably cause I was an only child and didn't really cause much of a problem. But I had three kids and all with the letter J so you can imagine. Hugs...Lu